Saturday 19 April:
Although overcast when I left Havelock the sun came out as I entered the Wairau Valley and headed south on SH1 through Blenheim over to Seddon. I checked out the new “Whale Trail” cycle trail that runs 210km from Picton to Kaikoura where it crosses the combined Railway-Cycleway bridge at Seddon.
The cycleway is on the lower level that was originally the vehicle roadway when this was a dual road-rail bridge. The Awatere River has risen a bit from the Friday night rainfall.
This is the entrance to the cycle/walkway deck, and looking back from several metres down the walk —–
—– you get a view of this new mural that greets cyclists travelling north as they exit the bridge.
My destination for the day was Ward Beach which I visited on 23 January in Week 1 of my trip, and where in my Travel Notes for that week I stated (in respect of the photo below) as follows:
Ward Beach is also known for its “Boulders” scattered along the foreshore. These ancient (65 million years old) concretions were uplifted with the beach some 2.5 to 3 m during the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake. Some boulders are round (although much smaller than those at Moeraki further south) but the large ones have unusual shapes as above.
Later in my travels I came across an internet item which showed photos of the “Ward Beach Boulders” and I realised that even though I mention above “some boulders are round”, the fact is I never walked far enough down the beach to see the “real” Ward Beach Boulders.
So, here are the “real” boulders ——
—– which stand out in shape and colour from the concretions I referred to, and —–
—– have significant similarities to the Moeraki Boulders, although much smaller in size.
I stayed overnight at the NZMCA (NZ Motor Caravan Association) POP (Park Over Property) site at Ward Beach, being a fenced and gated field made available by local landowners for NZMCA members who for a small donation can park overnight as guests of the owners. (There are 100s of POP sites through the country, usually owned by NZMCA present or past members). Outside the POP area there is strictly “no camping or overnight parking” at Ward Beach for any other members of the travelling public.
Showers were starting up as I returned from my hike to the Boulders, and this gave a great view out to sea from my campsite —–
—— of an ever-changing rainbow as the rain moved across the bay.
Sunday 20 April:
During the night I could hear from time to time a rustling/ticking sound that seemed like seagulls on the roof, but of course no birds were about in the dark. Woken for the third time around 1am, I opened the blinds and window to check out the back to see if some local animal was rubbing up against the van – nothing, so back to sleep ignoring the sound.
Then, waking up at my usual time of 6am, I found the following mess around —–
—– the hot cross bun pack I had left on the bench top overnight. It had originally been lying down with the base of the pack on the bench top – I have tipped it on its end to take this photo.
There were four buns left in the pack, fully sealed with a clothes peg in their plastic bag, now with a corner of the bag torn away, and an arched “tunnel” going from the corner right through one bun into the next, with the scrapings from the “tunnelling” accumulated on the back of the bench, and with individual sultanas (black bits) not touched. (The bits of folded paper towel on the back bench are “wedges” I use to stop stove rattles when travelling).
I clearly had a hungry stowaway on board, although not much seemed to have been consumed, with most of the bun excavated out of the “tunnel” seemingly cast to one side.
[P.S. So for the next two nights I placed the pack of buns in the door well, reckoning that if the intruder came out from hiding and I could hear this scratching sound again, I could sneak up quietly in the dark, throw the door open and get it to scamper outside – no luck however, as no sound at all overnight. I therefore purchased a mousetrap Tuesday when I got back to civilisation, but nothing caught so far this week.]
On the way out from Ward Beach after doing without hot cross buns this Easter Sunday I stopped on the back road at Ward to see what time the Coastal Pacific train came through, and discovered —–
—– these spur-winged plover feeding in the field nearby, presumably also waiting for the train, as —–
—– when it rumbled through the two birds (can you spot them in the middle centre and middle left) just glanced up as it went by, then carried on feeding.
Ward is the village centre for the agricultural and vinicultural Flaxbourne area, with local farming supported by their own —–
—– lime works quarry, and electricity supplied by their own —–
—– wind mill generators, of which there are seven machines (three shown here) scattered on two local hilltops.
As well as sheep and cattle farming there is a least one pig farm locally, with this group rushing up to me at the fence snuffling away in anticipation of some food (any-one for a spoiled hot cross bun??).
My destination for a second night freedom camping was Kekerengu Beach halfway down to Kaikoura from Blenheim. The drive passes St Oswald’s Church, —–
—— which is still being restored and strengthened after the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake. St Oswald’s was built 88 years ago as a memorial to the local landowner’s son. The final work to complete the restoration is to build a carpark in the field off the main road, and undertake internal redecoration, with a re-opening date yet to be announced.
Fortunately camping at Kekerengu Beach is well sheltered ——
—— which was welcome after seeing these threatening clouds coming in from the sea. Overnight there was heavy rain here at the beach, as well as all over Marlborough and Nelson, with rivers rising in flood.
Monday 21 April:
I stopped at the War Memorial Park in Ward on my return to the Blenheim area, and noted the preparations for ANZAC day.
Good use has been made of local limestone rock in constructing the Memorial. You can see crosses for each individual fallen soldier (centre of picture left hand side), each with inscribed name and a poppy (one of which was for a Charles Gunn).
Not far from Seddon I noticed the Grassmere Salt Works had accumulated huge piles —–
—– of harvested raw salt awaiting processing.
Then heading north through Seddon I was in time to see the Coastal Pacific cross the combined railway-cycleway bridge with the river running high after the weekend storm.
Excuse the blurring at the front of the engine – rain had started again and water drops got onto the front of the camera lens.
I intended to head up the Waihopai Valley south-east of Renwick and Blenheim for the afternoon, but —–
—– heavy rain set in and obscured the views up the valley, so I took this shot of autumn vines in the wet, and turned back to Blenheim for a 3rd night freedom camping.
Tuesday 22 April:
The reason for driving up the Waihopai Valley was to visit Byrons Monument, indicated on the map as a place of interest, but it was well up the valley and then on a gravel side-road deep into the backblocks. Was it accessible by motorhome? I thought I would give it a go.
As I got some 20km up the valley the vineyards gave way to sheep and cattle grazing, and the Waihopai River became increasingly entrenched in a rocky and tree-lined gorge.
And passing a side road I spotted a sign “Power Station” pointing up the road I was travelling – I thought “not another of these small local stations surely?”
I noted the roadside power pylons were substantial, and hence suspected there was indeed a power station nearby.
This was confirmed when the valley sides closed right in and the river gorge became narrow, I came upon the flooded Waihopai pouring over the spillway of the power station intake which was constructed on top —–
—– of a significant waterfall in the gorge. The station, built in 1927 and subsequently added to and upgraded over the years, —–
—– was hidden in the bottom of the gorge by trees and not accessible to the public.
While I was photographing the river a lady stopped and introduced herself as Alison McKenzie from Waihopai Downs further up the valley, and, seeing the van parked by the side of the narrow road, asked if I needed any help. I asked her “what is Byrons Monument” and she said “it is a big rock”. She said the road is quite good for the next several km up through farmland, but then it becomes narrow gravel.
So I pressed on, over a —–
—– a brand new recently opened one-lane bridge, then —–
— past a pine nut plantation, ——
—– groups of black faced Dorper sheep that shed their wool and do not require shearing, —–
—– some highland cattle, —–
—– some white faced black eyed (Black Baldy) cattle, —–
—– and a herd of alpaca. The narrow upper valley had a host of “different” stock being raised.
And then the “narrow” valley become “extra narrow” with the gravel road decidedly motorhome unfriendly with no show of passing any other vehicle, so, time to turn round and escape before I got trapped.
I did not feel totally defeated in not reaching Byrons Monument, which must have been another 3 to 5 km further on, so I searched on the internet later that afternoon ——-
—– and here it is, just as Alison McKenzie said, “a large rock”, in the valley of the Byron Stream.
From Waihopai valley and my aborted attempt to get to Byrons Monument I stopped at the Runway Café (near Woodbourne Airport) with its Argosy Safe Air Cargo plane on display.
At $2.00 entry I just had to look inside, and —–
—– from the left-hand pilot’s seat could peek out at the van way down below the nose of the aircraft.
So, after a fascinating travel day, on to Picton for the rest of the South Island final week,.
Wednesday 23 April:
When I joined the other 20 passengers on the Matua at 9.00am for the trip to Ship Cove at the head of Queen Charlotte Sound, we had been warned that the high winds developing this morning will mean rough seas on the way out, and that we may not be able to disembark at the Cove to view the Cook Monument up close.
Anyway, we took off at a reduced speed (under the 20 knots which the 90 passenger Matua was capable of) as we were bouncing onto and into the waves as we headed north – it was quite exhilarating in fact. We passed a King Salmon ——
—– supply vessel taking fish food pellets to the three salmon farms in the Sound. King Salmon also has three farms in Pelorus Sound (see last week’s Travel Notes). In this photo the sea is just a bit choppy as we cruised out from Picton, but we soon moved into rough swells —–
—— which were accentuated when we crossed the wake generated by the Aratere on its way into Picton
Then surprisingly the sea was completely calm and the wind died away as we moved into Ship Cove which Cook visited 5 times between 1770 and 1774. He clearly picked a really sheltered spot, which was great for us visitors, ——-
—– enabling us to disembark with ease at the Ship Cove jetty.
In 1770 local Maori saw Cook tie up the Endeavour to a large tree in the Cove, and its location was passed down through the generations when Maori were able to show this tree to early settlers in the 1800s. The path from the jetty to the monument passed by one —–
—– and then between two carved Maori pou, with the bridge taking the track over —–
—– this substantial stream which provided ample water to replenish ship supplies during Cook’s visits.
The Monument itself (unveiled in February 1913) is simple but impressive, flanked by canon of the era —–
—– presented by the British Admiralty in 1928 to mark the bicentenary of Cook’s birth. The large anchor on top was donated by the NZ Marine Department of the time.
Plaques on three sides include one —–
—– that records the dates of the five visits made by Cook during three voyages while mapping New Zealand.
We headed out from the tranquillity of Ship Cove into the swells and wind of the Sound to loop around into Endeavour Inlet where the Matua entered into a baggage transfer role.
The Cook Monument visit involved the first hour and 20 minutes of the 3½ hour trip, following which we had stops at several jetties in Endeavour Inlet to pick up hikers packs and move them around to the next overnight location for the walkers.
We dropped off two hikers at Ferneaux Lodge —–
—– while our skipper had quite a job sorting the large number of packs into groups for drop-off around the Inlet.
Here at Punga Cove we unloaded packs for walkers taking the four hour bush track around the bays from Ferneaux Lodge so they can overnight here before tomorrow’s trek. The full Queen Charlotte Track runs from Anikiwa in Grove arm just around the corner from Picton to Ship Cove at the head of the Sound, a distance of 71km, 25 hours of tramping time or 4 to 5 days walking.
With bag drops completed we headed at top speed (the swells had eased up enough) for Picton —–
—– overtaking this rather unusual looking King Salmon service vessel on the way.
So, this really worthwhile trip to Ship Cove concluded my programme of excursions on this South Island trip, and it was time to prepare for sailing back to the North Island and travelling home.
Thursday 24 April:
Today is a housekeeping and laundry day in preparation for the trip back to Tauranga.
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